Flash Club November Flash Club Contest

[Emily]

With the accustomed fanfare, let me introduce our November Challenge: A Progressive Story!

I will be honest here: I actually don’t have a clue how this will work in the Flash Club, but in the interests of having a bitta craic (fun) let’s just all jump in the deep-end and see where it goes, shall we?

There are some rules (below) and the voting will be different this month and this is all new and different and unusual and there will probably be a lot of “figuring it out as we go along” and more than likely we’ll all be left hanging as to where this story ends… but that’s what will make it more exciting, isn’t that right? Yeah? Yeah? Yes, I knew you would agree with me

(This was wholly inspired by an idea @gbhunt mentioned to me; something she and @Catherine Le Bars have had great fun with (thank you both) so all complaints go that direction (joke, lol) )



RULES:

-no more than 25 words (or less) per entry.

-Only one entry at a time (For those rascals who may try to bend The Rules by using many words/many entries one after the other: I’ll be patrolling with my wooden spoon).

-Your entry must advance the story in a meaningful way.

-Twists have to make sense.

-Please make your entry anonymous by clicking the anonymous button, but if you forget, don't worry, that's okay too. (Note: Guardians can see who posts.)

VOTING:

There will be NO VOTING until the final week of November: the story will end on the 21st and voting will start on the 22nd.

-The entry with the most votes will be the winner of an extraordinary hand-crafted (!!) virtual trophy. And, more importantly: some of our very prized, and internationally-renowned, virtual Litopi-cake.



The competition is open to all members. Feel free to enter more than once (but please read Rule No. 2 above).

-The main rule here: we ask you not to critique.

 

[Emily]

(STARTING POINT!)


It was dusk when they arrived. There was a strong smell of something rotting in the kitchen and the back door had been left unlocked.

 

[Anonymous]

A half eaten peanut butter sandwich suggested that Bob had left in a hurry, as did the pack of unopened cigarettes and silver Zippo lighter.

 

[Anonymous]

'I've seen some scruffy Air B&B's,' scowled Charlotte, 'though this is weird.'

A plume of smoke seeped through the gap under the cellar door.

 

[Anonymous]

"Fire!"

 

[Anonymous]

Daniel ran for the door. "Come on! We'll burn to death."
"We can't leave without it." Charlotte rummaged through the parchments on the antique escritoire.

 

[Anonymous]

Grabbing the parchment she was looking for and, as an afterthought, Bob’s lighter, she joined him.

Flames licked the door behind them. The sandwich smouldered.

 

[Anonymous]

They burst out the front door and sprinted down the burning cottage's gravel drive.

 

[Anonymous]

Only to find a car they didn't want to see parked at the end of it.

 

[Anonymous]

It was an old yellow Volkswagen. The girl sitting inside it had frizzy red hair - Daniel's ex-girlfriend. The crazed stalker.

 

[Anonymous]

"How does she know we're here?" Charlotte asked. "Did you tell her? Did Bob tell her?"

 

[Anonymous]

Daniel changed the subject. 'Didn't Bob say he was going to have a massive firework display? That he was stockpiling them in the cellar?'

 

[Anonymous]

Charlotte wasn't distracted. "I'm going to speak to her. This stalking has to stop. I've had enough of seeing her and that damn car."

 

[Anonymous]

The woman got out of the Volkswagen. A gun in her hand.
Daniel shouted, "Gabriella, no!"
Gabriella raised the gun, "Give me the map."

 

[Anonymous]

Charlotte glanced at Daniel, "What the hell is she talking about?"

 

[Anonymous]

Before Daniel could answer, the scream of an airplane's engines overhead made them look skyward. Jets of smoke and flames streaked from each turbine.

 

[Anonymous]

‘It’s you?’

The map was burning, charred scraps floating as Charlotte’s hand blazed, fire cascading up her arms, her hair.

‘What’s happening to me?’

 

[Anonymous]

Daniel tackled Charlotte to the ground and managed to roll out the flames.

 

[Anonymous]

Red-haired stalker grabbed Charlotte, who was fighting for breath, dragged her by the waist to a ditch and submerged her in the filthy, cold water.

 

[Anonymous]

Daniel was the first to hear the ravenous dogs approaching. Their excited howls and yaps mixed with the otherworldly echo of Orisha's trompe de chasse sent a chill down his spine. "We don't have time for this, Gabby!"

 

[Anonymous]

Then the cottage exploded. The air lit up with a hundred colours, as five dozen boxes of fireworks went off in a chain reaction.

 

[Anonymous]

With the howls and blasting horn closing in, Daniel and Gabby dragged Charlotte to the old yellow Volkswagen.

 

[Anonymous]

Daniel heaved her onto the back seat.
'Now drive,' he said.
First, Gabby unclenched Charlotte's fist and teased out the tiny piece of undamaged parchment.

 

[Anonymous]

An hour later, they pulled into a bleak motorway service station. Daniel didn’t seem surprised when they discovered Bob sitting in McDonalds eating a cheeseburger.

 

[Anonymous]

‘Here, you forgot this.’

Daniel threw the lighter onto the plastic table and Bob watched it skitter to a halt, gherkin slipping from his mouth.

 

[Anonymous]

Bob checked the time on his phone and smiled, "Better hurry — less than ten minutes before they arrive." And then Bob howled.

 

[Anonymous]

Gabby tossed the burnt parchment onto the table.

 

[Anonymous]

"This isn't the map to Lemuria, Bob! Where is it?! Did you ever have it?!"

 

[Anonymous]

Bob stopped howling and gasped for breath. "What does it matter? We're all doomed." He bleated with laughter like a mocking goat.

 

[Anonymous]

A howl outside. Daniel's thoughts darted back to Charlotte in the car. "Gabby, did you lock the doors?"